The IBEW held the 2017 Membership Development Conference from August 28th through August 31, 2017. The Membership Development Conference is the largest IBEW conference outside of the International Convention which is held every five years. IBEW leaders, business managers, organizers, and rank-and-file members come together yearly to study ways of growing the IBEW.
This year again, the IBEW held a 3-day new organizer training session and added a new 2-day advanced organizing training session before the conference began. The Membership Development Department announced that over two hundred members of the IBEW were being trained as new and advanced organizers.
Local 3 Business Manager and IBEW International Executive Council Chairman Christopher Erikson attended the conference, along with Assistant Business Managers Joseph Santigate and Luis Restrepo. Also in attendance were Business Representatives
Anthony Esponda, Benjamin Arana and
William Hofving as well as rank and file members and newly trained organizers representing three departments of Local 3, respectively Anthony Mercado, Matt Simpson and Johnny Lynch.
The theme of the 2017 IBEW Membership Development Conference was “Energy into Action” promoting the importance of membership development and organizing as keys to maintaining and growing the membership of the IBEW and its local unions for years to come.
The Membership Development Department is an important branch of the IBEW, whose goal of this year’s conference was to empower our local union leaders and their delegates with the tools needed to grow the IBEW via organizing and building relationships with our customers, partners and the public.
A wide variety of speakers over this 3-day conference provided valuable information and educational opportunities for the delegates in attendance. All branches of the IBEW including Professional and Industrial, Maintenance, Manufacturing, Telecomm, Utility, Government, Railroad, and Broadcasting were in attendance and participated fully throughout this event. As in years past, the focus of the conference was on organizing. Organizing is the lifeblood of the IBEW and its local unions and the importance of organizing is spelled out as the first Objective of the IBEW Constitution: to organize all workers in the entire electrical industry in the United States and Canada, including all those in public utilities and electrical manufacturing.
International President Lonnie R. Stephenson addressed the delegation and spoke of his early days in the IBEW as a Business Manager and organizer recalling that some of his fondest memories in the IBEW were as an organizer. He mentioned how rewarding it was being on a winning organizing campaign and reminded everyone that we as IBEW members must embrace the spirit and importance of organizing.
He also spoke about the BG & E organizing campaign where 1,400 workers became members of IBEW. “This is a fantastic moment for our new brothers and sisters and one of the largest organizing election victories any union has seen in years,” said International President Lonnie R. Stephenson. “This will transform not only their lives, but the lives of their families, and I think it will be an inspiration for working people across the U.S. and Canada.”
More than 80 volunteer organizers from IBEW locals across the country helped to win this campaign. IBEW organizers and BG&E workers rallied at the gates of the nine service centers before the sun rose and after it set. They stood firm greeting changes in the wintery weather. Additionally, they made hundreds of house-calls across the state. Volunteers were rank and file construction, utility, manufacturing and telecom members who came from more than a dozen states, some from as far away as Ohio, Tennessee, Montana and California.
BG&E workers will now form a new local ‰ÛÓBaltimore Local 410‰ÛÓa significant number as it is also the area code served by BG&E. It will be the first time Stephenson will charter a new local since becoming international president.
On another note, Business Manager Christopher Erikson also understands that the union’s strength has historically come from organizing. He, like President Stephenson, has recommitted å_Local 3 to organizing and will be hiring three full-time organizers who will work together with Business Representative and Director of Organizing Raymond Kitson and two Business Representatives from each of our Construction, Maintenance and Manufacturing Divisions.
Together they will work with our rank and file members to identify organizing targets throughout the New York City area. The plan is to build Volunteer Organizing Committees who will work with our professional organizers and Business Representatives to organize these targets and grow our membership in the New York City area.
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